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The Republic of Finland (Finnish: Suomi, Suomen tasavalta, Swedish: Republiken Finland ) is one of the Nordic countries. Situated in Northern Europe, it shares land borders on the Scandinavian Peninsula with Sweden to the west, Russia to the east, and Norway to the north while Estonia lies to its south. Finland is bounded by the Baltic Sea, with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west. The Åland Islands, off the southwestern coast, are an autonomous, demilitarised administrative province of Finland. Finland has a population of 5,276,571 people spread over more than 330,000 km² (127,000 sq mi) making it the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland is a democratic republic with a semi-presidential system and parliamentarism. Finland was previously part of the Swedish kingdom and later an autonomous Duchy in the Russian Empire, until it declared its independence on December 6, 1917. Finland is eleventh on the 2006 United Nations Human Development Index[3] and ranked as the sixth happiest nation in the world by a subjective independent scientific study heavily weighted on literacy rates.[4]
HistoryPrehistory (from 8500 BCE)According to archaeological evidence, the area now composing Finland was first settled around 8500 BCE during the Stone Age as the ice shield of the last ice age receded. The earliest people were probably hunter-gatherers, living primarily off what the tundra and sea could offer. Pottery is known from around the 5300 BCE (see Comb Ceramic Culture). Scientists believe it is probable that speakers of the Finno-Ugric language arrived in the area during the Stone Age (see Finno-Ugric peoples), and were possibly even among the first Mesolithic settlers in Europe.[6] The arrival of the Battle Axe culture (or Cord-Ceramic Culture) in southern coastal Finland around 3200 BCE may have coincided with the start of agriculture. However, the earliest certain records of agriculture are from the late third millenium BC. Hunting and fishing continued to be important parts of the subsistence economy, especially in the northern and eastern parts of the country. The Bronze Age (1500–500 BCE) and Iron Age (500 BCE–1200 CE) were characterised by extensive contacts with other cultures in the Fennoscandian and the Baltic region. The first verifiable written documents appeared in the twelfth century. The Swedish reign (early Middle Ages to 1809)Image:Savonlinna heinäkuu 2002 IMG 1635.JPG Olavinlinna, the medieval St. Olaf's Castle built in 1475, is the venue for the annual Savonlinna Opera Festival. The beginning of Finland's seven-century association with the Kingdom of Sweden is traditionally connected with the year 1155[7] and the 1150s hypothesised introduction of Christianity by Sweden's King Erik after a military expedition later dubbed as the First Swedish Crusade. However, archaeological evidence points to prior Christian influences in southwestern and southeastern Finland and include both western and eastern Christian artifacts. Historically verifiable date of the conquest is 1249 when Birger jarl conducted the so-called Second Swedish Crusade to Finland. Swedish became the dominant language of administration and education; Finnish chiefly a language for the peasantry, clergy and local courts in predominantly Finnish-speaking areas. The society was divided in four estates of the realm: nobility, clergy, burghers and peasants, who represented the majority, and the estateless.
The Swedish Kingdom strove to push the borders eastward, which led to wars of varying success with Novgorod. The expansion was halted by the unification of Russia and was eventually rolled back. During the eighteenth century, virtually all of Finland was twice occupied by Russian forces, known by the Finns as the Greater Wrath (1714–1721) and the Lesser Wrath (1742–1743). During this time "Finland" became the predominant term for the whole land area from the Gulf of Bothnia to the Russian border; both in domestic Swedish debate and by Russians promising protection from "Swedish oppression". The earlier Finland – that is, the southwestern area – was from then on called "Finland Proper". The Finnish areas ceded to Russia in 1721 and 1743 (excluding Ingria) were called "Old Finland". In these areas the traditional freedom of peasants was constantly pushed towards the oppressed position peasants had in other parts of Russia. Finland as a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire (1809–1917)Image:Women in Finnish Parliament (1907).jpg Thirteen of the nineteen women elected to Parliament in 1907. The Finnish Parliament celebrates its centenary in 2006–2007.
On March 29 1809, after being conquered by the armies of Russian Emperor Alexander I from Sweden in the Finnish War, Finland became an semi-autonomous Grand Duchy under the Russian Empire until the end of 1917. Old Finland was returned to the Grand Duchy in 1812. During the Russian era, the Finnish language started to gain recognition by both the imperial court and the governing bodies, first probably to sever the cultural and emotional ties with Sweden and thereafter, from the 1860s onwards, as a result of a strong nationalist movement, known as the Fennoman movement. Milestones included the publication of what would become Finland's national epic, the Kalevala, in 1835; and the Finnish language achieving equal legal status with Swedish in 1892. In 1906, universal suffrage was adopted in the Grand Duchy of Finland, as the second country in the world. However, the relationship between the Grand Duchy and the Russian Empire gradually soured when the Russian government made moves to restrict the Finnish autonomy. Wishes for national independence gained ground, first among radical nationalists and socialists. The Independent Republic and Civil War (1917–1918)On December 6, 1917, shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Finland declared its independence. The independence was approved by Bolshevist Russia but the Civil Wars that followed in Russia and in Finland and activist expeditions (see Heimosodat), including the ones to White Karelia and Aunus, complicated relations. In 1918, the country experienced a brief but bitter Civil War that coloured domestic politics for many years. The Civil War was fought between "the Whites", who gained support from Imperial Germany, and "the Reds", supported by Bolshevist Russia. The Reds consisted mostly of leftist propertyless rural and industrial workers who, despite universal suffrage in 1906, felt that they lacked political influence. The white forces were mostly made up of bourgeoisie and wealthy peasantry, politically more to the right. Eventually, the Whites overcame the Reds. The deep social and political dividing line and mutual enmity between the Reds and Whites remained. The Inter-war era (1918–1939)
Despite the Declaration of Independence calling Finland a Republic after the Civil War, the parliament, cleared of its Social Democrat members, voted with a narrow majority to establish the Kingdom of Finland. Frederick Charles of Hesse, a German prince, was elected King, putatively with the name "Väinö I of Finland", with Pehr Evind Svinhufvud and General Mannerheim serving as Regents. However, Germany's defeat in World War I meant that the idea was abandoned. Finland instead became a Republic, with Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg elected as its first President in 1919. The Finnish–Russian border was agreed upon in the Treaty of Tartu in 1920, largely following the historic border but granting Pechenga (Finnish: Petsamo) and its Barents Sea harbour to Finland. Finnish democracy survived the upsurge of the extreme right and financial crisis during the early '30s. However, legislators reacted against Communism and the relationship between Finland and the Soviet Union remained tense. Finland during World War II (1939–1945)During World War II, Finland fought the Soviet Union twice: in the Winter War of 1939–1940 and in the Continuation War of 1941–1944 in accordance with Operation Barbarossa in which Germany invaded the Soviet Union. This was followed by the Lapland War of 1944–1945, when Finland forced the Germans out of northern Finland. After the wars there were land mine clearance operations in Karelia and Lapland plus the enormous task of naval mine clearance in the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea during 1944–1950. The mines in Lapland especially slowed down the rebuilding and caused casualties. Treaties signed in 1947 and 1948 with the Soviet Union included obligations, restraints, and reparations on Finland vis-à-vis the Soviet Union as well as further Finnish territorial concessions (cf. the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940). Finland ceded most of Finnish Karelia, Salla, and Pechenga, which amounted to 10% of its land area, 20% of industrial capacity and 400,000 evacuees, mainly women and children. Establishing trade with the Western powers, such as the Great Britain, and the reparations to the Soviet Union caused Finland to transform itself from a primarily agrarian economy to an industrialised one. Even after reparations were fulfilled, Finland continued to trade with the Soviet Union in the framework of bilateral trade. Ultimately, the Soviet Union had a national debt to Finland. Russia assumed the debt after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and cleared it in 2006. The post-war era and modern historyImage:Kekkonen 1953.jpg Urho Kekkonen (then Prime Minister of Finland) in 1953, who later became Finland's longest-standing President. After the Second World War, neutral Finland lay in the grey zone between the western countries and the Soviet Union. The "YYA Treaty" (Finno-Soviet Pact of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance) gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics. This was extensively exploited, perfectly legally and constitutionally, by President Urho Kekkonen against his opponents. He maintained an effective monopoly on Soviet relations, which gave him a status of "only choice for president". There was also a tendency of self-censorship regarding Finno-Soviet relations. This phenomenon was given the name "Finlandisation" by the German press. However, Finland maintained a democratic government and a market economy unlike most other countries bordering the Soviet Union. The post-war era was a period of rapid economic growth and increasing wealth and stability for Finland. In all, the war-ravaged agrarian country was transformed into a technologically advanced market economy with an extensive social welfare system. When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, the bilateral trade disappeared overnight. Finland was simultaneously hit by a "home-cooked" severe depression. This left a mass unemployment problem, but the economy survived and began growing at a high rate after the depression. Finland joined the European Union in 1995, where it is an advocate of federalism contrary to the other Nordic countries that are predominantly supportive of confederalism.[8] EtymologyThe name Suomi has uncertain origins but a strong candidate for a cognate is the Baltic word zeme meaning "ground, earth, country". The exonym Finland has resemblance with e.g. the Scandinavian placenames Finnmark, Finnveden and Finnskogen and all are thought to be derived from finn, a Germanic word for nomadic "hunter-gatherers" (as opposed to sedentary farmers). How, why and when this designation would have started to mean the Finns in particular is largely unknown. Among the first written documents mentioning a "land of the Finns" are two rune stones. There is one in Söderby, Sweden, with the inscription finlont (U 582 †) and one in Gotland, a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea, with the inscription finlandi (G 319 M) dating from the eleventh century.[9] Geography and environmentImage:Finland 1996 CIA map.jpg Detailed map of Finland.
Topography and geologyFinland is a country of thousands of lakes and islands; 187,888 lakes (larger than 500 m²) and 179,584 islands to be precise.[10] One of these lakes, Saimaa, is the fifth largest in Europe. The Finnish landscape is mostly flat with few hills and its highest point, the Halti at 1,328 metres, is found in the extreme north of Lapland at the border between Finland and Norway. Landscape is covered mostly (75% of land area) by coniferous taiga forests, fens, and little arable land. The most common type of rock is granite. It is a ubiquitous part of the scenery, visible wherever there is no soil cover. Moraine or till is the most common type of soil, covered by a thin layer of humus of biological origin. The greater part of the islands are found in southwest in the Archipelago Sea, part of the archipelago of the Åland Islands, and along the southern coast in the Gulf of Finland. Finland is one of the few countries in the world whose surface area is still growing. Owing to the post-glacial rebound that has been taking place since the last ice age, the surface area of the country is growing by about 7 square kilometres (2.7 square miles) a year.[11] Flora and faunaFinland has a diverse array of flora and fauna. Both plant and animal species generally vary from region to region as a result of the differentiating climates of the northern, western and southern regions of Finland. There are over 1,200 species of vascular plant, 800 bryophytes and 1,000 lichen species in Finland, with flora being richest in the southern mainland and Åland Islands. Plant life, like most of the Finnish ecology, is well adapted to tolerate the contrasting seasons and extreme weather. Many plant species, such as the Scots Pine, spruce, birch and oak, spread throughout Finland from Norway and only reached the western coast less than three millennia ago. Therefore, it could be said that Finland has a relatively new ecology. Image:SchärenTurku.jpg The Archipelago Sea, between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland, is the largest archipelago in the world by number of islands; estimates vary between 20,000 and 50,000. Similarly, Finland has a diverse and extensive range of fauna. Interestingly, all terrestrial animals were completely wiped out during the last ice age. The animals arrived in Finland about 10,000 years ago, following the retreat of the glaciers and the appearance of vegetation. Nowadays there are at least sixty native mammalian species, 248 breeding bird species, over seventy fish species and eleven reptile and frog species present today, many migrating from neighbouring countries thousands of years ago. Of large wildlife mammals, the most common are the Brown Bear (the national animal), Gray Wolf, moose and reindeer. Other common mammals include the Red Fox, Red Squirrel, and Mountain Hare. Some rare and exotic species include the flying squirrel, Golden Eagle, Saimaa Ringed Seal and the Arctic fox, which is considered the most endangered. Whooper Swan, the national bird of Finland, is a large Northern Hemisphere swan. The most common breeding birds are the Willow Warbler, Chaffinch and Redwing.[12] Of some seventy species of freshwater fish, the northern pike, perch and others are plentiful. Salmon remains the favorite of fly rod enthusiasts. The Saimaa Ringed Seal, one of only three lake seal species in the world, exists only in the Saimaa lake system of southeastern Finland. It has become the emblem of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation and only through dedicated work by conservationists has this amazing seal been saved from extinction. However, it is still an endangered mammal, under WWF protection; there are currently around 270 Saimaa Ringed Seals in existence. It has been estimated that the immediate threat of extinction would be alleviated if the population of Saimaa seals could be brought up to 400 individuals.[13] Due to hunting and persecution in history, many animals such as the Golden Eagle, Brown Bear and Eurasian Lynx all experienced significant declines in population. However, numbers have increased dramatically in recent years, mainly as a result of careful conservation and the establishment of vast national parks. ClimateThe climate in Southern Finland is a northern temperate climate. In Northern Finland, particularly in the Province of Lapland, a subarctic climate dominates, characterised by cold, occasionally severe, winters and relatively warm summers. The main factor influencing Finland's climate is the country's geographical position between the 60th and 70th northern parallels in the Eurasian continent's coastal zone, which shows characteristics of both a maritime and a continental climate, depending on the direction of air flow. Finland is near enough to the Atlantic Ocean to be continuously warmed by the Gulf Stream, which explains the unusually warm climate considering the absolute latitude. A quarter of Finland's territory lies above the Arctic Circle, and as a consequence the midnight sun can be experienced – for more and more days, the further up north one comes. At Finland's northernmost point, the sun does not set for 73 consecutive days during summer, and does not rise at all for 51 days during winter. Everyman's rightThe traditional Finnish legal concept of everyman's right allows free right of access to the land and waterways, and the right to collect natural products such as wild berries and mushrooms, no matter who owns the land. These rights also generally apply to foreign citizens, with certain exceptions related to local boating, fishing and hunting rights.[14] Administrative divisionsProvincesThe state organisation is divided into six administrative provinces (lääni, pl. läänit) The provinces are further divided into ninety state local districts. The provincial authority is part of the executive branch of the national government, and has no elected officials. This system was created in 1634, and underwent few major changes until the redivision of the country into "greater provinces" in 1997. Since then, the six provinces have been (see picture on the right): These provinces are merely administrative divisions. Western Finland, for example, spans four major linguistic and dialectal areas (Ostrobothnian dialects, Southwestern dialects, Savo in mideast, and some Swedish speakers in the area around Vaasa). The Åland Islands enjoy a degree of autonomy. According to international treaties and Finnish laws, the regional government for Åland handles some matters which belong to the province authority in Mainland Finland. Also, due to the same international treaties, Åland is the only part in the European Union where language discrimination is officially enforced: you must speak Swedish to own land in Åland. Another kind of provinces are those echoing the pattern of colonisation of Finland. Dialects, folklore, customs, and people's feeling of affiliation are associated with these historical provinces of Finland, although the re-settlement of 420,000 Karelians during World War II and urbanisation in the latter half of the twentieth century have made differences less pronounced. The regions are subdivisions of these provinces. The old provinces or counties (1634–1997) survive in the telephone numbering areas. Regions and municipalitiesImage:Finnish municipalities 2007.png Municipalities and regions map of Finland (2007). Black borders refer to municipalities, red to regions. Legally, Finland has two levels of democratic government: the state, and 416 municipalities (as of January 1, 2007). The municipality is the same as a "city" level of government, except that rural municipalities are not called "cities". Since 1977, no legal or administrative distinction is made between towns, cities and other municipalities. Although a municipality must follow the laws set by the state, it makes independent decisions. That is, the decisions of a municipal council, if legal, cannot be appealed. People often identify with their municipality, although their nationality is usually more important. Municipalities co-operate in seventy-four sub-regions and twenty regions. These are governed by the member municipalities. The Åland region has a permanent, democratically elected regional council, as a part of the autonomy. In the Kainuu region, there is a pilot project underway, with regional elections. Sami people have a semi-autonomous Sami Domicile Area in Lapland for issues on language and culture. Largest municipalitiesIn the following chart, the number of inhabitants includes those living in the entire municipality (kunta), not just in the built-up area. The land area is given in km², and the density in inhabitants per km² (land area). The figures are as of January 1, 2007. Notice that the capital region – comprising Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo and Kauniainen – forms a continuous conurbation of about one million people and is effectively a single city in economic terms. However, common admistration is limited to voluntary cooperation of all municipalities, e.g. in Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council.
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